Searchlight, Nevada (CNN) - Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin kicked off a Tea Party rally Saturday in Sen. Harry Reid's hometown, encouraging disgruntled Americans to "take back our country" while attacking what she called the "Obama-Pelosi-Reid spending spree."

"There's no better place to kick off the Tea Party Express than Harry Reid's hometown," Palin said at the rally, dubbed "Showdown in Searchlight," aimed at conjuring up support for the Senate Majority Leader's defeat in November elections.

Activists - some of whom are calling the gathering the largest retirement party in the world - hope it will carry a strong symbolic message.

Reid, the Senate majority leader, is credited with helping push through Congress the controversial health care bill that President Barack Obama signed Tuesday, as well as the so-called "fixes" measure that passed Thursday.

"Washington has broken faith with the people that they are to be serving," Palin told the crowd, which numbered in the thousands.

Palin said the message to government leaders was "loud and clear."

"The big government, the big debt, Obama-Pelosi-Reid spending spree is over. You're fired," she said, prompting cheers from the crowd.
Palin's speech Saturday echoed many of her recent appearances at Tea Party events as she promoted "common sense conservative values" and decried "elites in Washington" and big government spending.

She addressed recent criticism of a post on her Facebook page that called for conservatives not to retreat in the wake of the health care vote, but "reload." Some critics have suggested the post encouraged violent acts against those who voted in favor of the legislation.

"Let's clear the air right now," she said. "We're not inciting violence. Don't get sucked into the lame-stream media lies about Americans standing up for freedom. it's a bunch of bunk that the media is trying to feed you. Don't let them try to divert" attention from the issue.

soundoff(174 Responses)

To Claudia, I understand your confusion. I mean, what is it about losing an election that these teabaggers don't get? They didn't "lose their country" – they lost a democratically-held election.

The teabaggers need to grow up and accept the fact that, in a democracy, the majority rules. Also, that we are free to look at the results of our politicians' actions and vote accordingly.

Case in point: Bush & Company ran the show from 2000-2008, including having control of the White House, Congress and the Senate.

At the end of that time, they had:

– turned the budget surplus they'd inherited into a huge deficit
– cut taxes on the wealthy who invested that money overseas and not in our country
– started two unfunded wars
– de-regulated the financial industry, which in part lead to global financial collapse
– ignored explicit warnings from our enemies about their intention to attack us, which in part lead to 9/11
– spread fear, hatred and division among our people, creating a polarized populace
– attacked all who disagreed with them as traitors, un-American and anti-God
– lowered political discourse to the abysmal depths of juvenile name-calling, lies and manipulation
– squandered the world's goodwill towards us after 9/11 by doing such reprehensible things as wire-tapping Americans and torturing prisoners of war

The majority of Americans rejected this approach, by electing President Obama and Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.

The country these teabaggers want back was disgraceful – and those of us who voted for this change for the good, will continue to vote for those politicians who will ensure we do not go back to the dark years of Bush and Cheney.

March 27, 2010 07:10 pm at 7:10 pm |

dw, california

"Take back our country" from who? Other Americans?

When she makes statements like that, it clearly shows that she thinks that anyone different than her is a lesser American.

March 27, 2010 07:12 pm at 7:12 pm |

Phillipa

Palin promotes violence, pure and simple. She doesn't even understand government or politics. Anyone who listens to her is brain dead.

Harry Reid is a seasoned, smart, caring guy.

March 27, 2010 07:13 pm at 7:13 pm |

ThinkAgain

What we have all heard loud and clear is that Palin is a quitter, a liar and a mooch.

She's an opportunist, fanning the flames of idiocy and hatred.

She and others are inciting violence – that's as plain as day.

Just because she and the other teabaggers live in an alternate universe, doesn't mean the rest of us can't think for ourselves and see reality for what it is.

March 27, 2010 07:13 pm at 7:13 pm |

Don

Sarah Palin and the tea baggers. Not an IQ over 90 among them.

March 27, 2010 07:15 pm at 7:15 pm |

Perusing-through

Dear Sarah Palin,

Can you please explain to the country what you really mean by "take back our country"? From who? From what?

Tell the uneducated ignorant people out there that you are really trying to strike fear in their minds about the so-call "big black boogie-man you call Obama". The same Obama you falsely accused of paling around with terrorist. The same Obama you falsely called a Marxist.

March 27, 2010 07:18 pm at 7:18 pm |

Joshing

Isn't it amazing that the shallowness of Ms Palin's ideas cannot be reconciled with present economic plights of ordinary people. Whipping up emotions and sensationalism are least of all virtues of leadership moreso, when they tither to inciting violence. Not so good foxy-folksy lady! Joshing

March 27, 2010 07:18 pm at 7:18 pm |

Grandma Jo

Sara please go back to Alaska, you are embarrassing to all the women out there who actually to have common sense.

March 27, 2010 07:18 pm at 7:18 pm |

LindaNC

This is laughable coming from a women who quit her job...took millions for a book she didn't write and now doing documentaries on tv....Maybe if she hadn't quit she would have been fired

March 27, 2010 07:20 pm at 7:20 pm |

KLS

Wonder if Palin had some of the tea and donut holes that Senator Reid has set up the "tea-party" event.

I too wonder what Palin means by "take back our country" and "common sense conservative values".

When the GOP and Bush were in charge they let Wall Street and the housing market go wild which brought our great nation to its knees. Millions of hard working Americans lost their futures under the "common sense conservative values".

With the GOP in charge they look our nation into Iraq and thousands of brave men and women in uniform have died and our nation has spent 4 Trillion dollars on this unnecessary war.

When the GOP lead the rich get richer and the middle class gets poorer.

March 27, 2010 07:21 pm at 7:21 pm |

MR. AMERICA

No one is trying to divert attention. I for one think Palin can post crosshair pics all she wants, doesn't bother me a bit. Freedom of speech and all that.

I disagree with her core pricipals, and will always think she's unqualified. Most people that do, will continue to think so, and those that support her will continue to support her. Same old same old.

March 27, 2010 07:21 pm at 7:21 pm |

chris

Claudia... I think they mean back to when America was a Utopia and everyone was happy (i.e. when they were children and sheltered from other bad things in America like wars, women's or black's right to vote, recessions/depressions, to a time when employment was good (before China), unregulated banking for get rich quick opportunities etc.). Sometimes it's code for a time when we had less Mexican immigrants.

Basically it's delusions, denials and inability to adapt to changes in the world and want the status quo to continue.

March 27, 2010 07:23 pm at 7:23 pm |

ThinkAgain

Everyone knows the teabagger movement was created and is funded by Roger Ailes and Fox. They are nothing but a bunch of retired white people – perfectly fine to accept their Social Security checks and use Medicare to pay their doctor bills, while they rail against “big government.”

The bottom line is they just don't like President Obama – and are too stupid to see that, like all of the GOP's other "pet" voting blocks (evangelical "Christians", gun owners, anti-choice and anti-gay groups) – they are being used.

Because really, teabaggers, did your life improve under Bush & Company?

What about the budget surplus Bush turned into a huge deficit by waging two unfunded wars and passing irresponsible tax cuts during wartime?

Under Bush, did the value of your house go up or down? What about your wages? (If you were working back then – you all seemed to be retired folks now.)

Remember the brilliant Bush idea of privatizing Social Security? Democrats kept that from happening, if Bush had succeeded in doing that, you'd be getting monthly checks worth nothing – because all the greedy, unregulated Wall Street hoodlums would have gambled it all away.

Did you feel safe under Bush – given that he ignored an explicit warning about al Qaeda and then less than a month later 9/11 happened?

It just seems to me that all these teabaggers are a bunch of scared, ignorant folks who have the memory of a gnat and an inability to think critically.

Guard your self; she is what the scriptures reference as the "harlot who sits at the gates of the city, using her charms to lure fools to the deep". (And the first fool was John McCain).

March 27, 2010 07:26 pm at 7:26 pm |

evelin

there is no sensibel or logical answer!

March 27, 2010 07:26 pm at 7:26 pm |

Tired

I do believe President Obama won the election of 2008 by making affordable healthcare one of his main talking points. I believe our duly elected Congress just passed his healthcare bill. This IS the American way! This is how representative democracy works. Is we were a Fascist or Communist country like Ms. Palin and crew like to allege she and all her buddies would now be in prison somewhere. We are a democracy within a republic and we allow dissent. We allow people to state their opinions. I just wish this bunch could do it without all the hate and vilification.

March 27, 2010 07:30 pm at 7:30 pm |

Mike

I hope someone throws a rock at Palin IDIOT!!!

March 27, 2010 07:30 pm at 7:30 pm |

Justin

I wonder how much they had to pay her.

March 27, 2010 07:33 pm at 7:33 pm |

Eric

Yaawwwwwwn.

March 27, 2010 07:34 pm at 7:34 pm |

Ken in NC

@ Claudia, HustonmTx.

What they mean is they want to retake control of the government with people that will do what they want. You see, it is their opinion that the government is headed down the wrong path if we do not take the path they want us to take. It doesn't make any difference to them that the majority of the people chose the government we presently have in place. They claim by acting up, acts of violence and hurling slurs at the majority, that makes them in the majority.

It's OK. It's like the baby that crys at night for you to hold her until she is sleep. If you will just close the door and ignore her, she will stop crying and go to sleep. Sooner or later these people will tire of shouting at the top of their voices when they understand that no one is listening. We are going on about our business of trying to get this country back on it's feet.

March 27, 2010 07:34 pm at 7:34 pm |

Tony in Maine

I don't think it has a meaning grounded in logic, Claudia. It's meant to convey the idea that "their" country was stolen by someone, probably "us." "Us" being those to the left of Genghis Khan or perhaps Attila.

In any event, I simply consider the source where Palin is concerned. When I lived in Alaska, every town had a half dozen Sarah's, women with a certain native intelligence that allowed them to survive in a world ruled by testosterone.

March 27, 2010 07:35 pm at 7:35 pm |

Anonymous

Palin should shut up and go back to Alaska

March 27, 2010 07:40 pm at 7:40 pm |

A Brit in Utah

I would like to tell Claudia what the "Tea Party "means by taking back the country. They want a government that will reward hard work and not penalize thrift., encourage the growth of new business and generally get out of our way.
Here is a suggestion, why don't we start drilling for oil and gas and use that money to pay for this health care fiasco instead of making the hard working people of the country pay for the rest. Of course this would not make the environmental lobby happy. It would make the tea party happy. These resources belong to the people. All the people. They should be used for everyone rich or poor not just the Obama voters. If you look at where the money is being spend it is constantly being used as paybacks to the people who got him in to office. I suggest you start watching Fox. Of course they are biased but you would be surprised what you find there that CNN never publishes. You should be very angry at what the main stream media keeps from you. Hell, if Al Gore hadn't invented the internet, we would never know anything that was going on in our government.

March 27, 2010 07:41 pm at 7:41 pm |

A Brit in Utah

I will bet dimes to donuts my comment will not be published as usual

March 27, 2010 07:42 pm at 7:42 pm |

John D

I will tell you Claudia, Houston, if you are that ignorant. It means we are going to vote the people out of office who snubbed the will of the majority.

Does mommy know your playing with here computer agian and shouldn't you be beddy bye!